Daily Research News Online no. 4612 - TNS Launches Panel in China as Asia Hots Up

TNS Launches Panel in China as Asia Hots Up

September 27 2005

The Asian MR market is growing by 10 to 11% a year and is 'the hottest market worldwide for the market research industry', according to Tony Cowling, Chairman of TNS. Cowling today announced the company's rollout of its 6^thdimension access panel to China and Japan.

Cowling explained that, while the business is growing 5% a year on average worldwide, growth in Asia is about 11%. Australia has the largest MR sector in the region, but this is growing only 4 to 5% a year, compared with 20% growth in China and 15% growth in India. He predicts that the 'market research industry regionally will grow twice as fast as the overall economy,' driven both by the establishment of US and European companies in Asia - particularly in China - and by local companies' increased use of MR. TNS total billings reached £950m last year, of which 12% was from Asia.

The company currently offers its fully managed '6^thdimension' online panels in six countries in the region: Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan, and is due to launch a panel in China at the beginning of next month. The Hong Kong 6^thdimension panel was launched in April, and a further launch is scheduled for Japan before the end of the year.

TNS says the 6^thdimension panel 'combines the efficiency of computer-assisted interviewing with the ability to incorporate multimedia stimuli'. Online research is likely to be increasingly popular in China, thanks to the country's 100 million Internet users - the second largest Internet population in the world. Around 40% of users have broadband access, and users spend an average of 13 hours a week online.

The China Access Panel is being officially launched at a breakfast meeting in Hong Kong on 4th October, accompanied by the following presentations:

The Internet in China: Ready for Prime Time - Wander Meijer, Group MD of TNS Hong Kong & Singapore
Online Research in China: It's Here and it Works - Mark Walton, Regional Director, TNS Asia Pacific Access Panels
Case Study: Rapid and Reliable Concept Screening in China (outlining research conducted for Danone using the TNS 6^thdimension access panel in China) - Stephen Yap, Associate Director, TNS Hong Kong.

TNS is online at www.tns-global.com

MrWeb will be launching a separate section focusing on Asian MR, in the first half of October at www.mrweb.com /asia.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.